COAL-DUST DANGERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 82, 28 June 1927, Page 1

COAL-DUST DANGERS

MENACE TO MINES STRICT REGULATIONS THE DOBSON DISASTER (From Our Bcsident Correspondent. ) WELLINGTON, Monday. In dealing with the importance of strict adherence to the regulations governing the control of coal dust in mines, the Dobson Mine Commission, in its report to the Minister of Mines. Hon. G. J. Anderson, makes the following observations: “Early in 1926 the Chief Inspectoi* of Mines, with a view to focussing the attention of mine-owners on this question. issued to them throughout New Zealand a circular setting out the methods he recommended for tlie sampling, analysing and recording of coal dust. A copy of this circular was on May 14, 1926, forwarded by the district inspector to the general manager of the Dobson mine *undt>r cover of a letter which stated that the Department intended to insist on the observance of the regulations relating thereto. “On September 6, 1926, the district inspector again wrote to the general manager requiring samples to be taken and threatening a prosecution unless they were duly taken. “The general manager thereupon took samples and forward them for analysis. On November 3. 1926, the district inspector notified the general manager that the samples did not comply with the regulation and advised him that all roads must be stone dusted. STONE-DUSTING “Stone dusting involves the sprinkling of quantities of fine non-inflam-mable dust, such as crushed limestone, over the coal dust deposited on the roof, walls and floors of the mine. “The efficacy of stone dust in this connection is in its nature a matter that scientific research and thorough testing must decide; but so far as we can learn from the evidence given at the inquiry and from the books and treatises on the matter that we have been able to peruse, we think that stone dusting, if done in proper quantity and in a proper manner, renders the coal dust inert and harmless. NO ADEQUATE STEPS

“No adequate steps were taken bv the Dobson manager to comply with the inspector’s requisition, but about the middle of November, 1926, the mine manager with a view to meeting the further pressure put: on the company by the inspector, laid a surface of clay along one of the dryest roadways in the mine.

“As has been shown, this precaution proved inadequate to prevent a coal dust explosion. “The amount of time allowed to this company to comply with this regulation was in our opinion somewhat lon

“It should be mentioned here that the value of stone dust in the prevention of a coal dust explosion was not fully appreciated by miners generally in New Zealand, and that until 1926, when the chief inspector of mines insisted on compliance with the regulations in this regard, it was the exception rather than the ;-ule for a mine in New Zealand to be stone dusted. “We think that inspectors of mines should be instructed to insist on Immediate and rigid compliance with the regulations regarding dusting in all the mines to which they apply.”